MA in Mediterranean Archaeology

The
Mediterranean, the world’s largest inland sea and a junction point of Europe,
Africa and western Asia, is one of the major crucibles of cultural, economic
and political change in world history, a focus of scholarship for all periods
between the Palaeolithic and the present, and a place where the past plays a
critical role in the present, as well as in the creation of a viable future.
This new degree aims
to be the leading programme of its kind in the UK and more widely. It draws on
the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s unique breadth and depth of research and
teaching expertise in this field, as well as the library- and museum-based
resources of UCL and London in general. Its investigative framework takes the
Mediterranean as a whole, from earliest times until Rome (with selective
extension into later periods), with a focus from the spread of farming until
the formation of the Classical world. Its framework is explicitly holistic and
interpretative, offering an advanced understanding
of Mediterranean archaeology in the broadest of senses, and investigating how the
Mediterranean’s traditionally-defined sub-regions fitted into and in turn
shaped this wider picture. It systematically compares and contrasts places and
periods in order to generate fresh perspectives on critical issues of social,
economic and cultural change.

The core course ‘Mediterranean
Dynamics’ is strongly thematic, diachronic, comparative and inter-disciplinary;
it encourages students to investigate common denominators in Mediterranean
life, and to engage with the region’s rich (pre-)historiography and diversity
of archaeological exploration. The choice of one out of two other dedicated
core courses (Mediterranean Prehistory or The Mediterranean in the Iron Age)
allows greater chronological focus on issues specific to these periods, still
within a pan-Mediterranean perspective. Optional modules enable students to
apply broader ideas to a given sub-region, and to feed lessons from these back
into the broader analysis, the choice of options being tailored to the
student’s specific requirements. This degree sets out to attract and challenge
first-rate students seeking new intellectually and materially-driven approaches
to the Mediterranean’s past, whether as a foundation for doctoral research or
for intrinsic interest.